Moto Android phone to carry touch, keyboard?

Motorola's social networking Android phone will promise to more directly compete against the iPhone and T-Mobile's imminent G1, a leak to BusinessWeek suggests. Although it will share the G1's use of a slide-out keyboard, the handset should have a significantly larger screen closer to the size of the iPhone's 3.5-inch display and will have styling cues somewhat like those of the Krave, positioning it as a more luxuriant alternative to HTC's phone.

Pricing would also be closer to the slightly less expensive Krave than the G1, which would supply the future Android hardware at $150 with a two-year contract. Although the cellphone designer is reportedly showing images and features for the system to carriers, an American release isn't anticipated until spring of next year, or several months after the G1's launch this week.

In addition to the social networking component, which will likely to tap into sites such as Facebook or MySpace, Android will give access to several Google-developed advanced features such as Google Maps and a full HTML web browser, both of which have been rare on Motorola's current phones.

The design recalls descriptions and early leaks for the Alexander but is unlikely to share much similarity with the already-shown handset, which has a smaller screen and is built around Windows Mobile. Either smartphone, however, is considered an important device for the company, which has struggled to hold on to market share without original RAZR-like success for any of its modern products.

Source: electronista.com

Motorola Springs For Android

After HTC, it's Motorola that is readying to jump on to the Android bandwagon.

Motorola is likely to launch a handset in the second quarter of 2009 that will be based on Google's newly released Android operating system, according to a report in BusinessWeek.

Motorola's phone will have an Apple iPhone-like touchscreen (which phone doesn't these days!), a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and "social network-friendly features," says the report.

It's no surprise that Motorola is taking to Android, the latest mobile operating system from Google. The first Android based phone, HTC & T-Mobile's G1 phone, has received positive reviews for the operating system though the hardware didn't meet with the same level of approval.

Source : wired.com

For Motorola which has been struggling to turn around its handset business, betting on Android could be the right move. The company is already one of the members of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) which promotes Android.

"Motorola is pleased to see the industry enthusiasm and support of the Android operating system," said a company spokesperson in an emailed statement. "As a pioneer in mobile Linux and a founder of OHA, Motorola believes Android promises to be one of the most powerful, flexible and customizable open platforms, enabling truly integrated mobile hardware, software and web experiences."

"We’re excited about the innovation possibilities on Android, and look forward to delivering great products in partnership with Google and the Open Handset Alliance community," added Motorola.

Timing though will be the company's biggest challenge, says Michael Gartenberg, vice president of Jupitermedia on his MobileDevicesToday blog.

"In the past Motorola's shown off lots of cool stuff that took way too long to get to market," says Gartenberg. "It's likely we will see an next iteration of HTCs handset by the time Motorola ships."

That means Motorola will face have to compete against the second generation of Android devices and not what's on the market currently, he says.

Motorola will also have to contend with rivals LG and Samsung who are expected to release handsets based on the Android OS next year.

Motorola’s Android-based social-networking phone to be released Q2 2009

While other companies are busy perfecting their craft (read: making more and more touchscreen phones), Motorola is out to do something new with the recently unveiled Google Android smartphone platform. It’s now a known fact that Motorola is indeed working on something that’s going to use Android, and that it will have some sort of social-networking feature pre-loaded/built-in, but now we have even more info about it, with a little bit of preliminary specs, even.

If a report from Business Week is to be believed, Motorola is currently preparing a follow-up Android-based device to the T-Mobile G1, and that spec sheets and photos of the said phone are already making the rounds to carriers around the world “in the past two months.” It is also said that Motorola is likely to introduce this mystery smartphone “sometime in the second quarter of 2009.”

While we here at Unwired View have been unable to snag any live pics of Motorola’s upcoming Android-based smartphone, rumors put it on a more favorable position than the HTC made T-Mobile G1 in terms of design. Also according to Business Week’s report, it will “feature a touch screen about the size of those on Apple’s iPhone,” and “takes some of the design cues from Krave ZN4” (pictured) but comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

While no definitive launch date has been announced and its official selling price is still unknown, Motorola’s Android-based phone is believed to be on track for at least a Q2 2009 launch date, for a price that’s less like that of the T-Mobile G1, and more like the recently announced Motorola Krave ($150 on a 2-year contract).

Via Business Week

Moto Android Phone… with WiMax?

Just reading the Bizweek story about Motorola’s plans to build a smartphone running Google’s Android mobile OS, and the first (unanswered) question that comes to my mind is… doesn’t it make sense to put a WiMax chip in this thing?

I mean, Google is a half-billion dollar investor in the nation’s soon-to-be biggest WiMax network… Motorola is the infrastructure supplier for the biggest soon-to-be-launched mobile WiMax deployment in the U.S. … just makes sense to think there will be a WiMax chip in there, no? Not that it would surprise us if we heard more about all this at CES.

No idea if it is true, maybe the Android guys know more?

Motorola working on “Android Social Networking SmartPhone”

Motorola has released several phone models recently, and practically none of them have been able to pique the general public’s interest. But if you recall, it was revealed a few weeks back that the company was forming a 350-person team to work on Android, and now we finally have more info on that front.

Apparently, the people in charge of recruiting staff for Moto’s projects either have loose lips or its equivalent in typing, because according to a job posting found on Coroflot, Motorola is working on a “new Android Social Networking SmartPhone.” Yep, that’s about as much beans as one innocent staff recruiter can spill. But there’s more!

The posting goes:

As a Senior Staff Interaction Designer, you will be responsible for leading and actively participating in the concept, design, documentation and development of user interfaces for our mobile products including our new Android Social Networking SmartPhone. You’ll lead brainstorming and work sessions, usability and innovation reviews and other forums of design development. In addition to your primary responsibility in the delivery of great design, you will also be expected to mentor other designers, bringing your personal strengths to the rest of the team.

It’s nice to know that Motorola is actively working on one of the few viable alternatives to the iPhone, but social networking? That just doesn’t seem to fit Moto’s music-inclined ROKR and all business, all the time MING profiles. But oh well, at least they’ve got something up their sleeve. 

Source:Android Guys